A Sunken Ship Worth Exploring!

The Titanic is one of the most famous sunken ships — at least a dozen movies have been made about it! But there’s one ship that’s also getting a lot of attention these days: The USS Independence. The what!?!?! The USS Independence was a ship that carried aircrafts during World War II and was later used to help test nuclear weapons. It sunk in 1951 off the coast of the Farallon Islands, a small group of islands 30 miles off the coast of San Francisco. But it wasn’t until recently that scientists got the chance to explore it. Why is that?

The ship was used to test atomic bombs so the steel (or the material used to build the ship) still contained a lot of radioactivity, making it dangerous for people to go near it. Now that over 65 years have passed since the ship has sunk to the ocean floor, scientists can use remotely operated vehicles (like the ones that astronauts use to explore Mars!) to carefully explore the ship. So far, scientists have discovered that the ship seems to be surprisingly in intact despite atomic bomb testing. Now, that’s an impressive ship!

In addition to exploring the ship, scientists are also exploring the aquatic life that has lived amidst the shipwreck. Take a look at one of the fellas below!

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